The Tao Colorist

The Craft

• Scene Balancing and Stylistic Adjustments - Colorist Alexis Van Hurkman on 'efficient' color balancing. (provideocoalition.com)

• The 3-Strip Technicolor Look - Colorist John Burkhart has an interesting breakdown of how he handles the 3-Strip look in Resolve 9. It's filed under Craft (as opposed to Tools) because of how he explains the original process and then tries to replicate it in a tool of his choice. (mynahmedia.com via @jaiyenjohn)

• A Concise History of Color Photography - A trippy and well researched article with plenty of fun factoids that will amaze your clients during some down time. Including the story of Levi L. Hill, a "hoaxer" who, we now know, stumbled upon a direct color process but in 15 years could never replicate his 'mistake' before dying in 1865. While concise, the history of photography is rich--so set aside a little time for this fascinating read. (luminous-lint.com via kottke.org)

• The Ultimate Aspect Ratio Guide for Filmmakers - Because every colorist needs to know their Aspect Ratios. (vashivisuals.com via @DigitalDuckInc)

• Everything You Need To Know about Aspect Ratios -  If you liked the item above, this was its inspiration. . . a mini-course from FilmmakerIQ, "Explore the changing shape of cinema over the years and learn a few techniques of composition for modern widescreen aspect ratios." (filmmakeriq.com via @ColoristBoy)

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A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Tao of Color's Official LCD Reference Monitors

Flanders Scientific Broadcast Monitors

The CM series is an affordable line of color critical reference monitors featuring 10bit panels, 12 bit signal processing, 3D LUT support,  3G/ Dual-Link/ HD/ SD-SDI Inputs, 12 onboard scopes on all inputs and world class support.  All standard and starting at only $3,295.

 

Learn More About the FSI CM Series Monitors

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The Tools

• 'Round-tripping' Premiere Pro CC sequences to Adobe SpeedGrade - And back again. (tv.adobe.com)

• [iApp] ExpressColor - This app gives you lift, shadows, mids, and highlight color wheels. You can create and export LUTs to be used back in your color suite. At $3 it's a fun little app. (itunes.apple.com)

• CuteDCP for After Effects - Funny name for a plugin, but it promises big results. After Effects CS5 or later. (fandev.com)

• [Forum] DCP Creation: The Same Fate as DVD Authoring? - Good friend of the Tao, colorist JP Owens, asks if investing in DCP creation tools is a fools errand? (forum.blackmagicdesign via Avid-L2)

• [Video] Adobe Photoshop: Removing a color cast - Photoshop guru Andy Anderson works the gray eyedropper in the Levels control.  (infiniteskills.com)

• Red Giant Software: Moving to Adobe Creative Cloud - Own any of the RedGiant software plugins for Adobe products and need to move them to Creative Cloud? Here's the link. (support.redgiant.com)

• The Poor Man's Control Surface -  Can't afford a control surface, but have a passion to color grade nonetheless? Turn your trackball into a control surface. This is an oldie-but-goodie. (studiodaily.com)

• Spectral Radiometer System Characterization - It turns out, Doc Brown didn't make up the term Radiant Flux (or was that Flux Capacitor? This publicly schooled Newsletter Editor gets science and fiction mixed up all the time). So, basically, I have no idea what this page says. You'll need to ask Robbie Carman since he Tweeted it out. Not light reading.  (gamma-sci.com via @robbiecarman )

• FSI Firmware Updates: CM- and BM- Panels - Includes performance improvements and bug fixes for these brand new displays. (flandersscientific.com)

The Business

• Adobe's Candy Coated Earnings Report - A Motley Fool blogger looks at Adobe's numbers and finds them wanting. Includes commentary on the Creative Cloud subscription numbers (or lack thereof). (beta.fool.com)

• Survey Says: Users Loathe Creative Cloud Subscriptions (Until They're Subscribers) - An analysis of a CNET self-selected survey is quite confused itself. (news.cnet.com)

• [Video] "Suit Up": The Future of Our Business? - What does a well-produced web series look like? Here's one to check out by Colorist Loren White. Shot on 5D, with a little bit of RED. (youtube.com via @lorenwhite )

• [Video] UFOTOG: If you build it, they will come - VFX guru Douglas Trumbull certainly hopes so. Trumbull wants to make this 10-minute short to showcase his vision of a never before seen format: 120 fps at 4K in 3D. And just to add a little spice to the recipe: show it on a curved screen. (youtube.com via @dhtrumbull)

• Trumbull on Immersive Projection - If you want to know what Trumbull has been trying to achieve his whole life when it comes to theatrical exhibition, read this mother of blog posts, 'A Statement from Douglas Trumbull'. It spans his entire professional career. Too bad he hasn't posted in the 18 months since. This one must have sucked the energy out of it for him. (douglastrumbull.com)

• Video on Instagram - How many times have you had a client ask, 'can you make it look like this?' To which they show you a photo on Instagram. If so, wait until they ask if you can make it look like the video they shot on Instagram. Better warm up those LUTs. (vimeo.com)

• The Future of TV and Cinema: Lower Resolution, Higher Frame Rates - "You might think that the film and TV companies had done a lot of research into human vision in order to choose those rates that have been in use--unchanged for decades. Unfortunately, you would be wrong." From the author of The MPEG Handbook on what the next generation of displays *should* look like.  (theregister.co.uk)

• The Future of Live Streaming - All four American networks have plans for live streaming to the web. The stream may become the rapids if they're not careful. (netnewscheck.com via @AlphaDogsPost)

• Is Hollywood Broken? Then Spark Some Change - By getting your audience to buy your gear. Then... all their friends will watch. Color me: Skeptical. In Hollywood parlance: Multi-Level Marketing Meets Kickstarter. Vincent LaForet thinks this idea has merit. (blog.vincentlaforet.com)

• Why Movies Have Sucked Lately - The predictable formula for Box Office winners has nothing to do with making good movies. (34st.com)

Outside 'The Box'

• The Making Of Moneyball -  A roundtable discussion by the DP, Editor, Sound Editor, and Director. (youtube.com)

• The Light Painter - Illustrator by day, light painting artist by night. Darren Pearson uses the air as his pallet and light as his brush. Samples of his work here:  (thrashlab.com) Video profile here: (youtube.com)

• Secrets of a Trailer Guru - If you think no one knows the name of a film's Colorist, try being the editor of the movie's trailer. Great profile of Hollywood's best. (wired.com)

Edumacate Yer'self

• Southeast Creative Summit - The First Annual meeting of this Summit will take place in Atlanta at the end of October. It's a 3-day series of 90 minute workshops dedicated to the craft of filmmaking. From Producing to shooting to flying camera rigs to color grading. Use this discount code to save up to $140 off the event (including the Media Motion Ball): tao2013 (southeastcreativesummit.com)

• DaVinci Resolve 1-Day Workshop: Dailies, RAW, Log and LUTs - This July, your humble Newsletter Editor will be in Burbank and New York City teaching at AbelCine. This is a one-day, two-part event starting with an Intro to Resolve for Dailies and wrapping with ideas on how to grade RAW and Log footage and the use of LUTs. Burbank (Early Bird ends July 10): training.abelcine.com | New York City (Early Bird ends July 18): training.abelcine.com

• Colorist Flight School LIVE!: 3-Day DaVinci Resolve Workshop - This is Tao of Color's workshop on DaVinci Resolve. We provide you with a short film and start grading it together, learning Resolve in the order we work the short film. Click through to find a city near you! (fmctraining.com) | For full details: (TaoOfColor.com)

• Martin Scorsese's Film School - The 85 films you need to see if want to know anything about film. This one pops up here in the Newsletter from time to time... so you can pick up from where you left off. (fastcocreate.com)

• [Video] Painting with Pixels - What is the Digital Intermediate process and when was it first used on a major feature film? This is the story of how The Cohen Brothers and DP Roger Deakins broke the barriers to do something that had never been done before, as told during that time. (youtube.com via @jonnyelwyn)

Career

• The Language of Inspiration: Where do you get your ideas? - Photographer Jake Garn in a B&H Photo and Video lecture that is both a photography class and creative workshop rolled up in one.  (youtube.com via @jakegarn)

• Seven Rules for Managing Creative-But-Difficult People - I liked this one. The opening paragraph intrigued me enough to keep reading. How to keep your creative people happy.  (blogs.hbr.org)

• The Big Moat Theory - None of us are overnight success stories. It takes time and patience to build a reputation, and a solid career. It's rather like "building a moat". (99u.com)

• Opportunities Flow Through People - I think I linked to this a while ago. But it's a good message worth repeating. (99u.com)

• Do You Take Naps? - A quick post with links to several articles on the benefits of napping... and even the benefits of taking a fake nap (for those of you who can't do naps). (lifehacker.com)

• 14 Ways To Acquire Knowledge - At the height of the Great Depression, James T. Mangan, the famous self-help guru of the time, published 'You Can Do Anything!' This is a summary of his advice. (brainpickings.org)

Tweet of the Week

The Next Step is a Doozy

• 'Crazy Ants' That Feast On Electronics - They've hit Texas and Florida. I may need to rethink the re-location of Tao HQ. Yikes! (dailymail.co.uk)

A Step Too Far?

• Voyager 1: Baffling Region at the Edge of the Solar System - Someone had best get to these scientists and shut them up! When faced with the reality that their predictive models about what happens at the edge of the solar system are completely wrong... they decided to stop making predictions. Instead, they're rethinking their models based on the new data. Silly rabbits. (Wired.com)